West 59th St Rec Ctr & Pool

Recreation Center 59 has been a vital community resource for much of the 20th century. First purchased by the City in 1906 for use as a playground, the land spanned mid-block lots from West 59th to West 60th Streets. At that time, the facility originally opened as the 60th Street Bathhouse. By 1942, the park had expanded to its present size.

The construction of this bathhouse, then under the auspices of Manhattan Borough President John F. Ahearn and the Department of Public Works, was part of a larger effort to situate such facilities in overcrowded working-class tenement districts for the purposes of public hygiene and recreation. A majority of homes in the Hell’s Kitchen community to the south lacked indoor plumbing at that time, and public shower and baths were a civic response to what Mayor William Strong called the needs of “the great unwashed.” A state legislative act in 1895 mandated the construction of free public baths in cities of populations of 50,000 or more. The West 60th Street building was one of the first to comply with this directive, and by 1911 twelve public baths had been erected in Manhattan.

The limestone and brick building, with terra cotta ornament, included an indoor pool measuring 35 by 65 feet (4 to 7 feet in depth), 49 showers for men, and 20 showers and one tub for women. In the first year usage totaled 180,100 patrons. The lot to the south was acquired for use as a playground. In 1911 architect Theodore E. Videto submitted plans for a fieldhouse at what is today Recreation Center 59. Videto who also is responsible for two neo-classical pavilions along Riverside Drive (at 122nd and 190th Streets) designed a two-story structure in English Gothic style made of Harvard brick trimmed with artificial stone. The addition was completed in October 1912. The bathhouse and fieldhouse were frequented by the predominantly Irish community in Hell’s Kitchen to the south, and by the mainly African-American neighborhood to the north known as San Juan Hill (much of which was later razed for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and public housing.) Longshoremen who worked on the westside docks also availed themselves of the facility.

In 1938 a five-story tenement building to the east was demolished, and under the direction of Parks Department Chief Architect Aymar Embury II plans were drawn up for an outdoor pool which opened in 1943. Though the outdoor pool has been closed for several years, plans are underway to replace it with an expansion of the indoor recreation center. Since that time the center has undergone a variety of improvements, including a new rehumidification system in 1990 and repairs to the boiler system in 1994.

For decades, Recreation Center 59 has been the training ground for Parks’ Municipal Lifeguard Training Program. The active center also includes a fitness room, indoor basketball and volleyball courts, and a climbing wall built in 1989, and programmed by City Climbers Inc. Learn-to-swim classes are provided in fall and winter to children and adults; the Recreation 59 West Summer Play Program and After School Program offer a mix of sports, arts and crafts, and drama workshops; and the Performing Arts for the Youth, sponsored by ABC Inc. & Disney Company, is the newest program available for local kids at Recreation Center 59.